WinXP sp2 in
mid 2004 :-((((((

Based
on feedback from customers and partners Microsoft is committed to providing a
12 month roadmap of upcoming service packs and security rollup packages. The
updated service pack roadmap chart details three key points:

Due to
feedback and reviews of the feasibility and usability of the Windows Security
Rollup Packages, Microsoft has decided that we will not be releasing any
further updates for Windows NT Workstation and Windows NT Server 4.xx in the
foreseeable future.

Windows XP
(Professional and Home) Service Pack 2 will be released in mid-2004

The Windows
Server 2003 Service Pack 1 release date has been moved from late-2003 to the
first quarter of 2004.

UPDATE: Wininformant has more
on this issue, it might be released earlier in Q1 2004:

In an
interview with ComputerWorld, Microsoft group vice president Jim Allchin said
that Windows XP SP2 was still on track for early 2004. However, the company is
evaluating the schedule, making me wonder if all the pressure from users is
finally settling in over in Redmond.
"If we don't change our mind, [that date is correct]," he said.
"There are many things that can help drive that. In particular, the
consent decree helped drive when we did SP1 ... We could decide to accelerate
the service pack. It's not some hard-and-fast thing. We have a team. ... I
don't want to get it locked down to a particular path, because something may
come up. Something came up in the last couple of weeks. It's got a lot of focus
here right now." What should be a big focus, sadly, is changing the
service pack schedule. Again, these release need to ship every six months like
clockwork.

Outlook Mail
counter

“Outlook mail counter” to place your outlook count on your
desktop. With the recent beta of Outlook 2003 it looks like this utility isn’t
going to be that useful since the new outlook does this on it’s own. One of the
top requests the developer received was to allow people who didn’t use outlook
but a web mail service like Yahoo or MSN to check their mail in a similar way.
Now developed Pop mail counter for windows XP. This program talks directly to a
POP mail server, counts your mail and places this information on your Windows
XP welcome screen. Now currently running a public Beta.

Codename:
Bear Paw

Some curious
engineers asked for more info at Microsoft, this was some of the reply:

Microsoft have
made it very clear at this time, the specific features that will be included in
Bear Paw have not been confirmed.

Eric Rudder did reference Bear Paw and did imply that it is targeted for
Microsoft FY04 (July - June 04.) release.

Eric Rudder's reference was pre-mature.

We have now been advised by Chandra Shekaran, the Terminal Server group
manager, that Eric Rudder should not have mentioned Bear Paw! Bill Veghte has
already spoken to him and advised him that at this stage Bear Paw is undefined
re features or Release dates.

Microsoft public position on Bear paw at this time is - Bear Paw is the code
name for the next release of Terminal Server. Its features set and release date
are at this time undefined.

Chandra confirmed to me that Bear Paw will not be released on its own, it will
either be part of a Service Pack or a major release. He specifically said
that it could be part of win2k3 SP2 or Longhorn - but nothing is decided.

Smartbar XP

SmartBarXP is a bar
that runs down the side of your screen, and can be configured to display
interactive panes, display shortcuts to common locations, or even replace your
existing taskbar. A huge selection of panes are available to be added to the
bar, which range from media Players and a running slideshow pane, to live news,
weather and stock feeds, and much more.
To add to the incredible flexibility of functionality, SmartBarXP can be fully
customized in almost every aspect you could think of. Every pane has extensive
options where needed, and can be customized to function and look just the way
you want it to. The bar itself can also be customized, with several options for
positioning, auto hiding, pane scrolling, fading and translucency effects, changing
the language and regional setting, and more. You can also select the theme the
bar takes on; it can match your current Windows XP theme, the Classic Windows
theme, or even use a third party SmartBarXP theme.

MS Windows
Services for Netware 5.02 SP2

Windows
Services For Netware 5.02 Service Pack 2 (SP2) provides a cumulative roll up of
updates and services that have been offered since the release of Windows
Services For Netware 5.01 Service Pack 1.

Overview
The Windows Services For Netware 5.02 SP2 provides a cumulative roll up of
updates and services that have been offered since the release of Windows
Services For Netware 5.0. Windows Services For Netware SP2 offers substantial
improvements to the Directory Synchronization and File Migration Utility since
the initial release of the Microsoft Windows Services For Netware 5.0 software
product.

The Windows Services for Netware SP2 offers two updates for download: MSDSSSP2
and FPNWSP2.

MS Sector
Inspector

SecInspect.exe
is a command-line diagnostics tool that allows administrators to view the contents
of master boot records, boot sectors, and IA64 GUID partition tables.
Additional features include creating hex dumps of binary files and
backup/restore of sector ranges.

Sector Inspector is a flexible diagnostics tool for safely collecting disk and
file system-related data for offline analysis. Sector Inspector has additional
features that allow backup and restore of sector ranges for use with other disk
editing tools. Because low-level disk access is performed, administrator
privileges are required to use most features of Sector Inspector.

Exchange
2000 September post sp3 roll-up patch

This patch
resolves problems that were found in the Exchange 2000 since SP3 was released.

The September 2003 Exchange 2000 Server Post-Service Pack 3 Rollup supercedes
the March 2003 Exchange 2000 Server Post-Service Pack 3 Rollup that was
re-released on March 24, 2003. Earlier Rollup Patch released in March has build
no. 06.00.01.6396 while the September roll up patch carries 06.00.01.6487.

This update requires Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 3.

The list of fixes that are contained in this rollup will be available shortly.

Live Meeting
Trial

Live Meeting,
formerly PlaceWareConferenceCenter,
is a new service in the Microsoft Office System that enables you to collaborate
online with employees, clients, and customers in real time with groups of 2 or
more than 2,000. With just a phone and a computer with an Internet connection,
you can free yourself from the cost and hassle of business travel.

The Live Meeting Web conferencing service helps you and your employees run and
participate in interactive meetings around the world with remote teams,
prospects, customers, partners, colleagues, and global audiences—in real time
and at a moments notice. With everyone participating from their desktops, teams
can swap ideas, share information, mark up files, collaborate with whiteboards,
or negotiate deals—at a fraction of the cost of travel. Communicating with
people more easily and quickly can help shorten sales cycles, increase productivity,
and improve the bottom line.

Microsoft
Virtual PC 2004

Microsoft will
release Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 late in calendar year 2003. In the
meantime, a 45-day free trial of the Connectix Virtual PC for Windows version
5, now from Microsoft, can be downloaded for evaluation purposes.

August 15th was the last day customers could purchase Virtual PC for Windows
from Connectix. In late 2003, Microsoft will release a new version of Virtual
PC (Microsoft Virtual PC 2004) which may have different features and may
require migration from the current Connectix Virtual PC for Windows product.
You can find more information about Microsoft's Virtual PC for Windows product
plans and support options, and you can download a trial version of Virtual PC
for Windows 5.2 at http://www.microsoft.com/virtualpc.

Currently, Microsoft has also made available the complete version of Virtual PC
for Windows 5.2(43.6 Mb) for MSDN Subscribers at MSDN subscribers site.

Office 2003
release details

Date

What Will Be Available

August 2003

Technology Guarantee. Acquire Microsoft Office XP or other Office
version 2002 programs and you may be eligible to receive a free upgrade to
the latest version when it becomes available. Learn more about the Microsoft
Office Technology Guarantee.

Sign-up for trial CDs. In early October, 30- and 60-day trial versions
of most Microsoft Office System programs will be available. If you sign up
today we will send you an e-mail message when you can order trial versions. Learn more and sign up today.

October 2003

Availability to Volume License customers. Customers enrolled
in the Microsoft Select and Enterprise Agreement volume licensing programs
will begin receiving receive the new Microsoft Office System programs
(English only) in their October CD shipments. Learn more about Microsoft
Volume Licensing.

Trial CDs. Trial CDs for the new Microsoft Office System programs will
be available the first week of October. Learn more and sign up today.

Availability to MSDN® Subscribers.MSDN
Universal Subscribers will receive Microsoft Office Professional Edition
2003 in the October shipment, and other Microsoft Office System products in
subsequent shipments. MSDN Universal Subscribers will also be able to
download Microsoft Office System products from MSDN Subscriber
Downloads on October 1, 2003.

October 21, 2003

Retail availability. The Microsoft Office System programs will
be available at retail and online outlets.

Microsoft Office System launch events. Participate in the Microsoft
Office System launch by attending a launch event in your area. Sign up today to
receive an e-mail with information on launch events in your area. Stay tuned
to this Web site for more information about upcoming events.

IE 6 still
has 22 holes

Windows 2003
64 AMD details

A MICROSOFT
WORD DOCUMENT has escaped from its laboratories and found itself on the world
wide web.
Dubbed "Hands on Lab", the lengthy document outlines a great many
procedures when working with 32-bit and 64-bit AMD architecture.

As the article says, a 64-bit operating system supports far more physical
memory than a 32-bit OS. Windows NT for the AMD64 platform supports 16
terabytes.

This, says Microsoft, has a number of benefits. More applications can support
more users, each application has better peformance because it can be completely
resident in the main memory, and wipes out the performance penalty of swapping
pages to and from disk.

The document also claims AMD64 has benefits for businesses, including increased
productivity, lower cost of ownership, and new application opportunities,
particularly in graphics.

There is more, very much more, here,
complete with revisions, corrections and a heap else.

WindowsUpdate
runs on Linux!?

Microsoft
moved its update server to linux according to this report, and so changed IP to
AKAMAI one of the largest hosting companies (which MS invested in too)

But maybe it
is a linux device in front if the server to protect the server from attack.

Windows
no-update

My
windowsupdate does not work on my laptop after I did a clean install, when I do
scan for updates, it immediately states 100% scanned and no updates available.
Anybody have a clue? please email me bink at bink.nu, thanx

UPDATE: Thanx Michael for the
suggestion, in IE I had no Languages defined, I added US english and
it was fixed!

Support
tools

Support Tools
for Microsoft Operating Systems
Phase 6 Service Release 1, Public Edition
This is Phase 6 Service Release 1 of the Support Tools for Microsoft Operating
System. Support Tools for Microsoft Operating Systems are provided as
troubleshooting tools for those working with Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

Overview
Support Tools for Microsoft Operating Systems Phase 6 provides the following
two tools to increase supportability of Windows Server 2003. These tools are
intended for Microsoft partners such as OEM and Systems Integrator, who need to
troubleshoot enterprise customer's problems such as system crash or other
system problems.

August 15
Office 2003 RTM day!

Today Office
2003 will officially RTM. I also heard it will be in MSDN today!

Author
receives Microsoft award

COMPUTER
author Karl Moore has landed a top award from software giant Microsoft.

Earlier this year the 23-year-old, of RawcliffeBridge, was placed on a short list
presented to the top brass at Microsoft Head Office in Redmond, Washington, USA.
Karl was up for the title of Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for his books on
the Visual Basic programming language.
After two months of deliberation Karl was this week named Visual Basic (MVP).
Speaking from his publishers in London,
Karl said: "I am both honored and thrilled to receive this award.
"It is a true surprise - I didn't even know I had been picked, never mind
short listed."
Microsoft will now provide Moore
with a year's supply of free software, alongside private access to the
company's own product store.
As reported by the Courier last week, the self-taught Moore has spent the last three years of his
life studying and talking about Visual Basic.
He has written two books, Karl Moore's Visual Basic.NET and the newly released
follow-up, The Ultimate VB.NET Code Book.
For more information visit www.karlmoore.com.

I might move
to Thailand

An interesting
little report in the Wall Street Journal:
In order to compete with the Thai government's plan to sell a million cheapo
Linux PCs, which we covered earlier, Microsoft did some fancy footwork on
pricing. And on activation.

According to the Journal, Microsoft said it would sell WIndows XP and Office at
a piffling $36 a PC.

And Microsoft also agreed to make specific Thai versions of Windows XP, IE and
the Media Player.

But here's the real stunner, aside from the price. The Vole also removed the
need for product activation for Windows XP in Thailand, at the government's
request.

So what gives?

If it can do all these marvelous things in Thailand, why not anywhere else on
our planet? As Windows XP forms a particularly large item in a PC's bill of
materials, resellers everywhere would certainly welcome this one.

My opinion:
MSN digital music, hmmmmm

Well I signed
up for the "European" MSN digital music portal which was launched
today, MSN in my country doesn't have it yet, as always Dutch Microsoft sites
are way behind, they are still promoting "Messenger 6 Preview" and
were promoting win2k sp3 while sp4 was out for weeks. Anyway I signed up bought
some credits and downloaded 2 songs from Beyonce (just for testing) 1 permanent
which I can copy to CD and 1 temporary (just play and no copy, playback is
allowed for 1 month.

As an
audiophile I want the best quality, certainly when I pay for it, well the WMA
files are encoded in WM8 !!! Why? They spend millions in developing and
promoting WM9.

The tracks are
128 bit, I had no option to select better quality or switch to WM9, Album Art
is not added or downloaded like other digital media I have. (please correct me
if I got it all wrong)

So Microsoft
nice try, but no thanks for now. I don't know if Apple's iTunes have these
options, but I'm sure more music lovers would like to choose quality.

Microsoft
prepares to be blasted

Microsoft
hopes to be ready when hundreds of thousands of computers infected with the
MSBlast worm start pelting its Windows Update service with data requests on
midnight Friday.
The company has taken steps to try to dodge the denial-of-service attack, but
it's also begun educating Windows users about other ways to get updates and
patches in the event that the update service is made unavailable.

"We are preparing," said Stephen Toulouse, security program manager
for Microsoft's security research center. "We are working diligently to
make sure that our customers can get the patch."

The primary payload of the MSBlast worm, which began infecting systems Monday,
is a DoS attack against the service from which most Windows users get their
updates. If successful, the maneuver would frustrate efforts to patch the
Windows vulnerability the worm exploits. The strategy is also a way of simply
harassing the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant; the worm's code contains a
message for the company's founder: "billy gates why do you make this
possible? Stop making money and fix your software!!"

Named after the msblast.exe file that contains the program, MSBlast continued
to spread across the Net on Wednesday, infecting nearly 228,000 computers by
midmorning, according to data gathered by security company Symantec.

Computers infected with the worm will start sending connection requests to the
Windows Update service at midnight Friday, according to the clock on a given
user's computer.

Although Toulouse
was mum on the specific steps the software giant is taking to prepare for the
attack, Microsoft is advertising alternative ways to get downloads and
information from its site. The company has put more than 10 links on its main
Web site to send people to more information and alternative channels for
downloading updates.

Toulouse also stressed that consumers can and
should get the latest patches from the company's DownloadCenter.

Lloyd Taylor, the vice president of technology and operations Keynote Systems,
which evaluates network performance, said that Microsoft's service will likely
fall victim to the attack.

"I don't think any network in the world would be accessible with the
amount of traffic that is going to be thrown at it," Taylor said.

Taylor also
said that the amount of traffic directed at the Microsoft site could take down
small local networks. But a similar prediction a few years ago fell flat.

In 2001, after Code Red infected some 350,000 computers, it aimed a similar DoS
attack at whitehouse.gov. The network administrators were able to move the site
from the targeted Internet address and sidestep the attack. Moreover, despite
hundreds of thousands of PCs flooding the Internet with data, local network
outages didn't happen.

Marc Maiffret, chief hacking officer for security software maker eEye Digital
Security, said the amount of data sent from each infected computer would be
small and that it would be unlikely to overwhelm any networks. Each compromised
computer should send 50 packets of data every second--about 16kbps. That's
quite low for such attacks.

Microsoft to
start Music download service in EU

Microsoft has
stolen a march on rival Apple by signing a deal with a digital music company
backed by singer Peter Gabriel to launch the first internet download service in
Europe to sell individual tracks.
The new venture will be accessed through Microsoft's Windows Media Player
software and will allow users to download songs from a choice of more than
200,000 by major artists.

Apple's iTunes service, which sold more than 6.5m tracks in three months since
launching in the US, has been heralded as a success because it allows users to
download tracks at a set price and then copy them to CDs or portable players.

OD2, Mr Gabriel's company, said single tracks would be available from about 75p
each while albums would cost £7.99, considerably cheaper than their instore
counterparts.

"For the first time, millions of music fans across Europe
will be able to buy individual tracks from all five major labels," said
Jonathan Usher, the director of Windows Media Division.

The five record groups, all of which have signed deals with OD2, have also
promised to supply exclusive singles to the service before they are available
in the shops.

They hope this will encourage fans to pay for the track rather than downloading
it illegally from file sharing sites. A successful launch could assuage
industry fears that fans are becoming bored with tracks before they hit the
shelves.

There are also hopes that downloading could help revive flagging singles sales.
Tracks bought through the service are expected to be eligible for the charts
from later this year.

Media Player will link to either Microsoft's own MSN service or one operated by
the Italian internet company Tiscali.

Charles Grimsdale, chief executive of OD2, said he expected to have at least
300,000 tracks available through the service within a matter of weeks.

With the might of Microsoft behind the launch, record companies are hoping that
the service will turn the tide against illegal downloads.

"This is a significant step, the Windows Media Player is the dominant
player in Europe and will significantly widen
the potential customer base," Mr Grimsdale said.

windows XP
to be shipped with firewall enabled

Microsoft said
yesterday that it planned to change the way it distributes its flagship Windows
XP operating system software, in response to a malicious software
"worm" that has spread over the Internet in recent days attacking
tens of thousands of personal computers by exploiting vulnerabilities in
Windows.

Dissemination of the worm, a viruslike program, slowed yesterday as network
administrators and individual computer users around the world took steps to
protect their machines, even as Microsoft's critics stepped up their complaints
that the company's industry-dominant software puts its customers at risk of
such outbreaks.

In at least a partial answer to its critics, Microsoft said that it would begin
shipping the consumer and business versions of Windows XP with the protective
network firewall completely activated, to make PCs less vulnerable to attacks.

As part of its so-called .NET strategy, the company has been selling Windows XP
with the firewall only partially enabled, to make it easier for users to play
games online and make use of various automated Web services -- such as programs
that make it easier for consumers to link the information in their credit card
accounts to their checking accounts online, for example. But critics have long
said that such capabilities, which can make PCs more open to network attacks,
should be chosen by the user, instead of being an automatic feature of the
software.

Steve Lipner, Microsoft's director of security strategy, said yesterday that
the company had been shipping the software without the full firewall protection
turned on because customers had indicated that it was their preferred setting.

"Doing it the way we did was probably the right decision when we shipped
XP," he said. "Obviously, times change, and the things we do to
protect our customers change."

In the future, customers who chose to partly disable the firewall will be able
to do so. The other main version of Windows now sold by Microsoft, Windows
Server 2003, has already been sold with the firewall fully enabled; users can
disable it if they choose.

Yet critics say that beyond the firewall setting, Microsoft continues to put
its customers at risk by selling buggy software that must be fixed through
periodically released software patches downloadable from its Web sites.

After a new Windows vulnerability was discovered in July, Microsoft created a
software patch. But only a fraction of the users of the affected versions of
Windows took that step, leading critics to warn that someone would inevitably
create a worm or virus to exploit the weakness on the millions of unpatched computers.
Indeed, the worm carries a message blaming Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman,
for the vulnerabilities in the company's software.

New variant
of Blaster worm on the loose

A modified version of the W32.Blaster worm
is on the loose, according to advisories from two security firms. But users
whose machines are patched against the original Blaster should be protected
against the variant as well.

Kaspersky
Labs, a security firm in Moscow,
this morning reported that it had detected a modified version of Blaster,
also known as Lovsan, that takes advantage of the same vulnerability in the
Windows interface that handles remote procedure calls (RPC).

The only
changes seem to be in the appearance of the new worm and a new text string
abusing Microsoft Corp. and antivirus writers, according to the the Kaspersky
alert.

The name of
the worm file has been changed from MSBLAST.EXE to TEEKIDS.EXE, according to
Steven Sundermeier, a vice president at Central Command Inc., a Medina,
Ohio-based vendor of antivirus software. The variant also uses a different
code-compression method than the original, he said.

An official
at the CERTCoordinationCenter at CarnegieMellonUniversity
in Pittsburgh
said the center had not heard of any variants so far. But given the amount of
exploit code available that can take advantage of the RPC vulnerability, the
reported appearance of variants isn't surprising, said Art Manion, an
Internet security analyst at CERT.

Meanwhile,
the original worm still appears to be spreading, but at a slower pace. At
this point, "it's more of a slug than a worm really," said Russ
Cooper, an analyst at TruSecure Corp., a security vendor in Herndon, Va.,
and moderator of the NTBugTraq mailing list. "It's crawling along at a
very slow rate."

So far,
TruSecure's servers have recorded attacks from about 471 unique Internet
Protocol addresses -- or about 13 new ones every hour, Cooper said. About 88%
of the attacks on TruSecure's servers are from new IP addresses.

CERT
estimated the number of infected systems worldwide as being "in the low
hundreds of thousands," Manion said.

Project 2003
RTM on august 18

on Aug. 18 it
will release to manufacturing one of the programs of the Microsoft® Office
System, Microsoft Office Project 2003. This milestone brings companies one step
closer to the features in Project 2003 that align resources and business
activities with strategic objectives, which can make the difference between
those organizations that achieve success and those that do not.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO )
Chris Capossela, general manager of the Microsoft Project Business Unit,
announced the news during a presentation at the Silicon Valley Speaker Series,
a monthly event held at the company's Mountain
View campus. The Microsoft Office System is scheduled
for availability later this fall.

Customers and Partners Reap Line of Business Benefits

Project 2003, with its Microsoft Office Enterprise Project Management (EPM)
Solution, is being recognized by customers, independent software vendors and
system implementers as a platform for scalable solutions that enable companies
to maximize their efficiency by aligning their initiatives with business
objectives. The Gear and Apparel group at Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) is
using the Project 2003 beta to streamline the process of bringing new and
revised REI-branded products to market. By blending its product development
expertise with EPM practices, the Gear and Apparel group will be better
positioned for continued growth.

Microsoft Office Project 2003 includes Project Professional 2003, Project
Server 2003 and Project Web Access, which work together to create the EPM
Solution. Also part of the Microsoft Office Project 2003 product lineup is
Project Standard 2003, the version of Project designed for stand-alone use.
Estimated retail pricing* will be $1,499 for Project Server 2003, $999 for
Project Professional 2003 and $599 for Project Standard 2003.

Customers who acquire an earlier retail version of Microsoft Project between
Aug. 15 and Nov. 30 may have the option to upgrade to Microsoft Office Project
2003. Additional information on the Microsoft Office System Retail Technology
Guarantee will be available at http://www.microsoft.com/office/ on Aug. 15,
2003.

ADAM
overview

Half of
Windows crashes down to third-party software, says Microsoft

Though it's
not trying to sidestep blame...

Microsoft has laid the blame for half of all Windows crashes on third-party
code.

Scott Charney, chief security strategist at Microsoft, told developers at the
TechEd 2003 conference in Brisbane,
that information collected by Dr Watson, the company's reporting tool, revealed
that "half of all crashes in Windows are caused not by Microsoft code but
third-party code".

Charney's comments come as the company highlights the rigour with which it
tests its own products before release. Microsoft emphasised that products such
as Yukon and
Exchange Server were undergoing thorough testing - both internally and via
independent third parties - prior to their release to the market.

The company is employing root cause analysis and event sequence analysis
procedures to scrub out the creation of sloppy code. The result is that
individual developers have a high degree of accountability for the code they
produce, while the systems and processes associated with code development are
rigorously monitored.

Root cause analysis enables the company to check closely the work of individual
developers. “If a developer has written vulnerable code, then we look at what
else that developer has written and check it,” Charney said.

Event sequence analysis takes this further, analysing the reasons why the
vulnerable code was written. Charney said it was not necessarily so they can
sack whoever is writing vulnerable code but to find out the reasons why and how
Microsoft can improve its staff with training or more efficient processes.

As Charney made his remarks, CharlesSturtUniversity
announced it would be offering a Master of Information Systems Security degree
including MCSE:Security industry certification.

Charney also reinforced Microsoft's message to developers and network
administrators that they need to build secure applications and networks
"from the ground up".

The chief security strategist's remarks have come at an unfortunate time, as
mainstream and niche media outlets produce heavy coverage of the impact of the
MSBlast worm, which has infiltrated corporate and enterprise networks
worldwide.

Worm hits
over 100,000 Windows computers

The worm that
hit the internet yesterday infected over 100,000 windows computers, luckily you
visit my site daily and you patched your system weeks ago. Others were not so
lucky. So still spread the word to patch, the Blaster worm is a rather kind
worm, another worm might be on the way making use of same open door and do more
nasty stuff.

Longhorn
stuff

Microsoft's
new Patch management plans

Microsoft is
working to end the patch management nightmare by creating a new, centralized
patch-management architecture that it will use for all its products; this
infrastructure will be used by a new generation of services, such as Microsoft
Update, and tools, like the company's installer programs. This week, the
company issued its first beta of Microsoft Installer 3.0, one of two installer
programs Microsoft will support under the new patch management scheme. For
anyone supporting Microsoft's products, what was once a dream is suddenly
becoming reality.

"Customers told us to reduce the vulnerabilities in our products before
they ship, and to get fixes out before vulnerabilities are exploited," a
Microsoft representative told me. "It's not easy delivering timely, high
quality patches under our current system. So we need to simplify patch
management, and create tools to do this effectively and consistently."
Microsoft Installer 3.0, one of the two end-user patch installation
technologies Microsoft will support under the new scheme should ship in early
2004, I've been told.

Microsoft has many goals for its next-generation installer technology.
Hot-fixes, security patches, and other updates shouldn't require a reboot when
possible, the company tells me. There should be a simpler and more consistent
way to determine what patches are already installed and which critical updates
need to be installed. Patches should be delivered as quickly as possible,
reducing customers' exposure to problems. And of course, patches should work
properly the first time and not introduce separate issues of their own.

Microsoft Installer 3.0 is only part of the answer. The company will shore up
its patch infrastructure in the coming months and then update services like
Windows Update and AutoUpdate to work off the new common back-end. Then, a
wide-reaching service, currently known only as Microsoft Update, will arrive,
providing updates for all of the company's applicable products. Other patch
management-related products, such as Systems Management Server (SMS), the
Microsoft Baseline Security Advisor, and Software Update Services (SUS) will
also be updated to take advantage of the new infrastructure.

Outlook
Express stops here...

It might be
the world's most widely distributed e-mail client, but Microsoft has confirmed
that it has no intention of further developing Outlook Express. "[Outlook
Express] just sits where it is," said Dan Leach, lead product manager for
Microsoft's information worker product management group. "The technology
doesn't go away, but no new work is being done. It is consumer e-mail in an
early iteration, and our investment in the consumer space is now focused around
Hotmail and MSN. That's where we're putting the emphasis in terms of new
investment and new development work."

While Outlook Express has always been most popular with individual consumers,
many business users have also utilised it, in part because it is part of the default
Windows install. Microsoft executives are hoping those users will now switch to
the full-blown Outlook client (and pay for an Office licence in the process).
"IMAP is just not a very rich protocol," Steve Conn, Exchange Server
product manager, told ZDNet Australia
during the company's Tech Ed conference. "The great majority of people
used Outlook Express because they weren't on a LAN environment, and Outlook was
just too fat for them."

Office 12
development process

Even as
Microsoft prepares to launch Office 2003 this fall, it is readying a new
quality-first development process for Office 12.

The company is stepping up its quality assurance, stressing a new goal, called
Milestone Q, of getting code clean and solid earlier in the development
process, according to a Microsoft internal memo examined by CRN. Toward that
end, the company will use more automated quality-assurance and testing tools
such as Big Button and Buddy Web. Office 12 is also known internally as the Longhorn
version of Office.

In the current Office development workflow, if a developer thinks a feature is
done, he checks it into the system,often before his program manager or testers
have worked with it. Going forward, the developer, tester and program manager
all will work on the code before it is checked into the main source branch.
Theoretically, that means it will be immediately ready for internal testing,
also known as "dogfooding."

One solution provider, who requested anonymity, was glad to hear Microsoft is
upping the ante on quality, "but this sort of begs the question with what
happened in previous versions of Office."

Office, which has an estimated 90 percent of corporate desktops, is often
beta-tested by solution providers.

Software development, especially for a product as feature-rich as Office, is a
repetitive process comprising what can seem to be endless feedback loops and
rework.

"We're trying to reduce the iteration of that cycle because it's extremely
costly," said Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president of Microsoft's
Information Worker Product Group. "We want to use our development
resources more effectively, yielding higher-quality code and not iterating what
customers never see," he said.

The Office 12 team will rely on new tools, including Buddy Web, a system
developers can use to privately share releases, according to the memo, from
Eric Fox, Office development manager at Microsoft. Buddy Web had previously
been used by the Outlook team.

In addition, the Office group will have access to Big Button, a system that
gives developers easy access to the appropriate set of tests for their code.

Automation has become a bigger factor in both internal and external testing.
The use of the Watson tool in Office 2003 development led to more complete
testing,including an additional beta round,and what Microsoft says is much
better code. Watson automates the near-instantaneous transmission of crash
reports and data to Microsoft over the Web.

Another tool, dubbed Service Quality Monitor (SQM), will also be used more
widely. Watson reports system information about crash-related events,
"where you were in the code, what was the state of Intel registers and key
memory variables," Sinofsky said. "SQM, - pronounced 'skwim'- informs
us of a sequence of events: 'Here you started Outlook, wrote a message, moved a
message to the folder.' Each of these little pieces of data are piled up and
sent occasionally, and we look at that data in aggregate."

The use of SQM and Watson is voluntary and anonymous, he added.

Microsoft
readies Windows Storage Server 2003

Over the past
couple of years, Microsoft's Enterprise
(news - web sites) Storage Division has signed up an increasing list of OEM
partners for its network-attached storage architecture, and the result has been
strong growth in sales of Windows-powered NAS. And more changes are due next
month with the launch of the group's next-generation design, which is dubbed
Storage Server 2003.

However, other than the MS seal of approval and the confidence that imprimatur
can bring to some parts of the market, what's the appeal to storage vendors?
Could it be the very same things we customers look for in a technology
supplier?

Microsoft next month will offer a wider variety of NAS to OEM partners starting
with the launch of its next-generation design, dubbed Windows Storage Server
2003. The current list of NAS partners includes Coastline Micro Inc.,Dell Inc.,
EMC Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Iomega Corp.

Starting with WSS 2003, the group will offer seven different configuration to
partners, according to Claude Lorenson, product manager with the Enterprise
Storage Division. This is more than double the number offered under the current
(and for all purposes now previous) Microsoft-powered NAS program. During our
conversation, held across the street from last week's LinuxWorld show, he
called them stock-keeping units (SKUs).

For the high-end SKUs, Microsoft will offer enterprise-level capabilities such
as support for clustering, Fibre Channel, iSCSI and load balancing. These and
other features improve performance when the NAS is used as a gateway to a
storage area network. (Earlier this summer, Microsoft released its iSCSI driver
package for Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000 (news - web sites), and Windows XP
(news - web sites) Professional.)

At the entry-level part the SKU list is a configuration that supports only two
hard disks, uses software RAID and removes support for Unix (news - web sites)
NFS. "We're very conscious about differentiation. A small business
environment won't have Unix servers. It's at a price that provides our OEMs the
ability build a sub-$1,000 box and still make money," Lorenson said.

Another WSS 2003 SKU will add print server capabilities, useful in a small
business or department environment. The feature had been requested by its OEM
customers as well as from end users of the current versions.

"With WSS 2003 we have a real breadth of products, from a NAS box for $999
to a really high-end 48TB device, and all run by Windows," Lorenson said.
"People are starting to realize that we can fine tune [NAS] for different
environments. Before long, you're going to start seeing more focused offerings
in every level."

In addition to the expanded SKUs, changes within Microsoft's storage group will
boost the technical and marketing support available for partners selling their
NAS solutions.

The Enterprise Storage Division will release its own updates separate from the
general server releases, Lorenson said. "There will be a WSS 2004, that will
be totally upgradeable from 2003, and so on into the future. We will do our own
patches and QFEs [Quick Fix Engineering updates] directly. This is only
possible because we have an organization surrounding the product."

The first
mobile phone designed by Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp. is set to enter the
market this fall, marking the duo's first joint volley against established
handset makers.
Mitac, a Taiwan-based computer maker expanding into the handheld-device market,
plans to start selling its new Mio8380 in Europe
in the end of the third quarter.

Besides voice calls, the handset, advertised on Mitac's web site, will be
capable of playing music and video, sending e-mail, taking pictures and keeping
a diary. The mobile phone will cost between $565 and $598 before subsidies.

The handset uses Microsoft's Smartphone 2002 operating system and Intel's
PXA255 200MHz processor. The phone is based on a reference design that was
first introduced to the industry in early 2002, rattling the nerves of
established handset makers that fear Microsoft and Intel could use their
considerable resources to dominate the market.

Microsoft and Intel have targeted the handset market to counter slowing sales
for PCs, which remains a major source of revenue for both companies.

Because of established players' reluctance to work with Microsoft and Intel,
the two companies have turned to Asian contractors like Mitac and High Tech
Computer, which are anxious to enter the handheld market.

I hope you
listened!!, worm is spreading.......

Last night a
worm started to spread (MSBlaster) it infects vulnerable systems by randomly
scanning IP subnets, after august 15 till the end of the year it will start a
distributed DDOS attack on Windowsupdate.com. A message is placed in the
registry: I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!!billy gates why do you make this possible ? Stop making money and fix your
software!!

It also starts
a remote command session and listens to port 4444.

Due to random
methods of the worm it may cause the infected computer to crash/ reboot, see
pic form ComputerAssociates--->

Luckily this
worm does not harm your system that much, it might fill up your network though.

Don't think if
you have a firewall that you are safe and dont have to patch, a collegua laptop
might be infected at home and is plugging it in your network now!

Read the below
message from MS and follow the links to AV sites, for more details and removal
instructions:

The Microsoft Product Support Services Security Team is issuing this alert to
inform customers about a new worm named W32.Blaster.Worm which is spreading in
the wild. This virus is also known as: W32/Lovsan.worm (McAfee), WORM_MSBLAST.A
(Trendmicro), Win32.Posa.Worm (Computer Associates). Best practices, such as
applying security patch MS03-026 should prevent infection from this worm.

Customers that have previously applied the security patch MS03-026 before today
are protected and no further action is required.

IMPACT OF ATTACK: Spread through open RPC ports. Customer's machine gets
re-booted or has mblast.exe exists on customer's system.

TECHNICAL DETAILS: This worm scans a random IP range to look for vulnerable
systems on TCP port 135. The worm attempts to exploit the DCOM RPC
vulnerability patched by MS03-026.

Once the Exploit code is sent to a system, it downloads and executes the file
MSBLAST.EXE from a remote system via TFTP. Once run, the worm creates the
registry key: